Progress of Banten depends on the people

Progress of Banten depends on the people

By Ridwan M. Sijabat

CILEGON, Banten (JP): In entering the autonomy era, there is
no doubt that the newly established Banten province lags in many
areas particularly as it is sandwiched between two powerful
provinces -- Jakarta and West Java.

Community figures in the province concede that while financial
and institutional development are important, certain cultural and
societal ethics which have persisted so far must change in order
to spur on the new province's development.

Hakamuddin Djamal, Banten's acting governor, said the new
province has great potential to achieve significant progress
provided locals, and their political leaders, can change their
way of thinking and adopt what he described as modernity.

"The key problem in the new province is how to help local
people and the local political elite change their way of thinking
and to be open to modernity," the acting governor said in an
interview with The Jakarta Post at his office in Serang recently.

"A large part of the population is not educated."

He noted the irony that the province has great potential in
areas such as mining, industry, fishing, tourism, agriculture,
and trade, but lacked the necessary support of qualified human
resources to realize that potential.

"The Banten sultanate was known for its international trade
with European countries and had a trade mission in the United
Kingdom and France during the 18th and 19th Centuries but now the
majority are still living in poverty," he said.

Djamal pointed to the lack of education and various health
problems plaguing numerous underdeveloped villages in the
regencies of Lebak, Pandeglang and Serang.

Some parts of Banten, however, have been more exposed to the
outside world such as Tangerang which has seen tremendous
infrastructural development due to the presence of industry
there.

Djamal, a former specialist staffer with the Ministry of Home
Affairs and Regional Autonomy, said people in Banten must learn
how to practice democracy as stipulated in the 1999 law on
regional autonomy.

"Being democratic means a readiness to accept defeat in the
decision and policy-making processes and not to resort to force
or anarchic and destructive actions," he said while lamenting the
politics of fear used during the recent election for regent in
Pandeglang and the mayoral election in Cilegon.

Hundreds in Pandeglang residents staged a series of
demonstrations demanding newly-elected regent Achmad Dymiaty
Natakusumah step down. A hand grenade was even lobbed at his
official residence.

"To be consistent with democracy, for example, people in
Pandeglang and their leaders should accept Dymiaty's eletoral
success in the election by the regency council and give him the
opportunity to develop the regency," Djamal said.

Djamal asserted that he did not wish to see a recurrence of
such anarchy in the coming provincial council and gubernatorial
elections due to be held in about five months.

Nevertheless he conceded that the elections, the first ever in
the province, are "expected to be colored by political
disturbances, mass rallies and the politics of fear because the
people and the political elite aren't ready to implement
democracy."

He pointed to the use of money politics and the presence of
religious extremist groups and informal youth organizations as
the causes of the raucousness.

"In the case of regent elections, for example, what's
important to them is not how candidates gain a majority of votes
in a democratic election but how candidates mobilize the masses
and existing informal groups to press the legislative council to
vote for them," he said.

Tubagus Hasan, an influential community figure in Serang,
called on locals to discard such methods and to develop a modern
and civilized Banten.

"The establishment of Banten as a new province and regional
autonomy are golden opportunities for people to develop
themselves in all fields. The people should no longer sleep in
idleness and should give up their dependence on the province's
rich natural resources," he said.

He warned indigenous groups in the province that they would be
left behind by economic development if they themselves did not
actively participate in the development process.

Hasan also called on the government and investors putting
their money into the province to pay serious attention to the
development of the education sector, especially in improving
workers' skills, and to helping improve the local people's
political awareness.

"Education is a serious problem that needs an urgent solution.
To improve the quality of human resources in the new province,
local administrations, investors, private educational foundations
should all establish more educational institutes and training
centers for the farming, fishing and plantation sectors,
especially in rural areas," he said.

Aly Yahya, a local figure in Pandeglang, called on provincial
politicians to help educate the people and improve their
political awareness.

"The local political elite in the administration, legislative
council and other institutions should give a good example,
especially to their supporters, in exercising their democratic
rights," he said.

Aly, also a legislator from the Golkar Party in the House of
Representatives, called on the provincial administration to
promote a participative development model to empower local
people.

"With this model, the people should be persuaded to
participate in development programs in all sectors in an effort
to narrow the widening disparity between rural and urban areas,
between the grassroots and the political elite and between one
regency and another," he said.